Quotes on Early Agriculture/The Fertile Crescent/Ancient Mesopotamia
In The Ascent of Man, Bronowski says that Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world, because it had a supply of wheat and fresh water. Wheat and water make bread. Bread allows people to live, and thus gather and make a civilization.
In The Ascent of Man, Bronowski says that civilization began in the Fertile Crescent , because people learned to domesticate plants and animals. In Jericho, 8,000 years ago, Jericho was a walled city about ten-square acres where people ground wheat to make flour and bricks to make presumably walls and buildings.
In The Ascent of Man, Bronowski says that the sickle—a curved blade for harvesting—was used on farms. Humans changed the sickle from having a smooth blade to a serrated blade in order prevent losing wheat kernels. Early farmers held the stalks of wheat and sawed them so as not to lose any precious grains of wheat.
In TAOM, B. says that, “The most powerful invention in all of agriculture is, of course, the plow…,” if you do not soften the soil, you cannot plant seeds. If you cannot plant seeds, you cannot grow food. The farmers of the Fertile Crescent used the plow to feed their communities.
According to B., in TAOM, the wheel was first invented in 3,000 B.C. in Southern Russia. They were first just solid wooden wheels used for drawing or pulling loads on sledge. After that, the wheel and axel were used in many inventions that came after, including the mill for grinding flour and water wells.
Prehistory:
Early Ag.
The Ascent of Man
By Jacob Bronowski
Quotes on Early Agriculture/The Fertile Crescent/Ancient Mesopotamia
In The Ascent of Man, Bronowski says that Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world, because it had a supply of wheat and fresh water. Wheat and water make bread. Bread allows people to live, and thus gather and make a civilization.
In The Ascent of Man, Bronowski says that civilization began in the Fertile Crescent , because people learned to domesticate plants and animals. In Jericho, 8,000 years ago, Jericho was a walled city about ten-square acres where people ground wheat to make flour and bricks to make presumably walls and buildings.
In The Ascent of Man, Bronowski says that the sickle—a curved blade for harvesting—was used on farms. Humans changed the sickle from having a smooth blade to a serrated blade in order prevent losing wheat kernels. Early farmers held the stalks of wheat and sawed them so as not to lose any precious grains of wheat.
In TAOM, B. says that, “The most powerful invention in all of agriculture is, of course, the plow…,” if you do not soften the soil, you cannot plant seeds. If you cannot plant seeds, you cannot grow food. The farmers of the Fertile Crescent used the plow to feed their communities.
According to B., in TAOM, the wheel was first invented in 3,000 B.C. in Southern Russia. They were first just solid wooden wheels used for drawing or pulling loads on sledge. After that, the wheel and axel were used in many inventions that came after, including the mill for grinding flour and water wells.